Is Statutory Rape Harmful?

Is there any evidence that an adult having consensual sex with a teenager results in harm of any kind? I can't find any.

For example many states in the USA have an age of consent of 18. However many European nations have an age of consent of 14 (Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria) - do these nations condone child abuse? I doubt it.

Another idiosyncrasy is that once of age (i.e. 18 in California) no one can object to an exploitative sexual relationship. A 40 year old man can have sex with this young adult, who has little experience of life, and even degrade them in pornographic films. Meanwhile a 20 year old can be arrested and labelled a 'pedophile' for having a loving relationship with a 15 year old girl.

In fact it could even be argued that adults having sex with prepubescents isn't necessarily harmful, although I don't want to discuss that here.

Can anyone here justify the age of consent being what it is? Can anyone here provide evidence that sex before a certain age is harmful?

Some good points Decius.

I would say that I personally try not to see the issue in terms of age but rather look for empirical evidence of harm. For example a relationship can be harmful/abusive/coercive/exploitative regardless of the ages of individuals involved.

Perhaps certain age groups are more vulnerable than others but to divide all humans into below and over an arbitrary age seems inappropriate.

wow, just ckecked out that link, they actually closed that thread.

Very fearful indeed.